Aarrrrgg! There be climbable ice out there!

Well the exploits of the weekend were grand. Richard and I drove out to the mountains after work on Friday and camped out in K-Country for an early start on R+D to avoid the crowds. The winds were crazy over night, but calmed down by the morning. With an early start we were off and running, well hiking, but Luger was running :o) . I was less then confident in my crampon with my new boots (see below), and after starting up the climb I full in wasn't feeling 'it'. Sometimes you have to go with your gut feelings, which was the right thing to do in this case as my feet were shearing all over the place when I seconded the climb. After I down climbed I handed the rack over to Richard and watched him do the best climbing I have ever seen him do. Definitely a stellar fuckin' day!

Gear notes:
My new boots are starting to feel great, but I am not used to how my crampons fit them and when I started off on the lead I was less than confident in my foot placements. The fit of my Grivel G14's on my LaSportiva Nepal Evo's leaves the front point shorter and the secondary points too far back for my liking. To have the secondary point contact the ice I have to drop my heal too far for comfort. I also found that my feet were shearing far to easily; likely a result of less penetration in the ice. I will try going back to duo-point and see if I can get used to the crampon/boot match, then switch back to mono's. If that doesn't work I'll be back in the Crampon buying market.

On a good note, the new Cloudvail soft shell pants I just bought were great. And some of the best performing climbing pants I have ever used. It only took me 3 years of trying to find a pair of soft shell pant that fit, but now I can stop looking and climb more.

DMM has screamers!!!!! I had never seen them before, and when I saw them at Vertical Addiction in Canmore I picked up a couple to try. They seem great and are lighter than other screamers I have tried. I still like the Yates screamers, but DMM gear has always been good to me. So, why not try them.

Check your gear please! If not for yourself do it for your partners!

It is tragic that Todd Skinner died. It is even more tragic that the cause was failure of his belay loop while raping. To discuss weather or not a backup would have prevented this or not I leave up to you, but Todd had a reputation as being a safe climber. Answers to many of the questions people have will never be known. They have gone with Todd. I think that any climber would want others to learn from their mistakes, so lets take what we can out of this tragedy and reevaluate our gear and our climbing practices.
I've checked my gear, and will be phasing some of it out very soon. Please check your gear too.

This is a link to some information on Todd accident:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/10/26/CLIMBER.TMP

Todd Skinner Passes in Yosemite

Sad days in the international climbing community. The passing of another legend just a couple days ago. Todd Skinner opened the door to freeing big walls as the first to free El Cap. His passions for freeing the tallest faces he could find took him across the world. From Cirque of the Unclimbable to the first free accent of the great Trango Tower in Pakistan, he was prominently at the forefront of the Hard-and-free approach to climbing.

Todd, may your next life be full of unclimbed granite peaks and undiscovered mountain ranges.
Rest in peace man.

Ice Hunting In Kananaskis

Well, after a few weeks of Ice hunting we finally scored!

It only took a weekend of driving through the Icefields parkway, some new routing in Groto, and a few hikes in Kananaskis but we found it.

The alarm rings earlier then it felt like it should... I stumble around to find my jeans... the gear is still in the Jeep from yesterday's unsuccessful 'Ice Hunting'. It's an early Alpine start of 8:30ish or so. Phone call to Richard to say I'll pick him up in 15, and a final twist of the lid on the Thermos... slam a RedBull and we're off!

With a RedBull inspired lead foot I'm at Richard's in 10 and after chasing Luger the 100# German Shepherd puppy down the street we get him in the back and were finally out of town on the all to familiar drive to the front ranges of the Great Canadian Chossies.

A little over and hour later were passing the first signs of the 2006/2007 ice season, thin early season Ice high up on Mt. Baldy. Several stops and breaks to look the binoculars later and we see it.... Climbable 'looking' ice! (From the road at least) More RedBull and sorting gear, Richard pulls out the doggy-backpack for Luger. Rope goes on my pack, draws and runner in Richard's, Screws/water/pins/some food/and hot chocolate in Luger's pack.

We start with the familiar bush whacking all to common in early season hunting and an hour later were still not there.... Fear NOT!!! Another 20 mins and were close....close enough to seee...... to see that it's not as in as it looked from the road We decide to check it out anyways and frind that the ice on the side is really good and that the pillar looks not bad. I traverse over, hooking ice mushrooms and wind formed features,... take a deep breath of anticipation and swing my tool into the pillar...... THUNK-er-Rattle-TAPATAP-Jingle-SHIFT-SKWEEK-Hollow-Ught and the sphincter effect is there with a vengeance! Not the sound my early season lack of brass-balls needed. Try one more swing.... Words cant describe the sound... anyone who ice climbes knows the sound... the sound that immediately give the "What the F$&* are you even trying to climb this Unconsolidated piller for? Do you really want to break you legs?" internal monolouge. HRRmmmm, ugh, down...

Some more inspection of the pillar and we start looking to the sides... Ah ha! ICE! a short jaunt and were now looking at a super thin WI2 line, but the ice looks solid-ISH. Gear-up, flake rope, and Richard is off! Haha, the Ice hunters are now looking success straight on! A little ways up and the first stubby screw comes out, turn-crank-crank-crank, slowly! Bottom out! it's only a 10cm screw, clip screamer, go... now more pro.... top out.
All right, my turn! I start up... hey this ice isn't bad... now if my balance would only allow for the traversing nature if the thin smear... OK, balance in check... clean screw, reach high, THWACK, kick kick, reach high, THWACK, kick kick. Then I see it... The belay... the tied off stubbies belay!

But we have done it! Three weekend of Ice Hunting and we have finally done it. WE HAVE STARTED OUR ICE SEASON! Even if on a much easier climb than planned

With only one thing left to do to make it official, he hike out and, and, AND... BEER!